With racing back to Monday nights, Plymouth rejoining Div 3 and the news that Bob Roger, youngest of the Rogers clan, had been signed on loan from New Cross, the 1951 looked much more promosing for the Exeter camp. Arthur Pilgrim had decided to retire from the sport, although he was later to be seen in the colours of Cardiff.

So the line up at the start of the 1951 season looked like Gent, Sargeant, Hardy, Hoskin, Walsh and Moore with Bedkober and Roger at reserves. But Walsh was injured in a pre season meeting which gave Roger the break into the team proper, scoring a quiet three points in his debut challenge match against Swindon.

Exeter scored a hefty 77-30 win over Plymouth in the National Trophy, but Goog Hoskin was injured with a fractured collare bone during that meeting. The return leg at Plymouth ended in a draw despite the abscence of injured Hoskins and Walsh, a result that saw them throug to the Semi Final. They won the Semi Final beating Rayleigh 129-91 on aggreagte and comfortably beat Swindon both home and away to win the Div 3 Final. That took them on to the next Round against Div 2 Oxford who won the overall round comfortably.

The first League match resulted in a win at Plymouth with Hoskin scoring his first maximum, and the following week saw the Falcons win away at Long Eaton in a promising start to the new season. Then the next night they went to Wolverhampton where they won again by a huge 22-60 margin. Things were looking good at home as well as Long Eaton were swept aside 65-18. The good run continued as Exeter snatched a hard earnt victory away to Plymouth and then went to Ipswich for a challenge match - and won there 39-45. At this stage, the Falcons topped the League and hopes for another succesful season were running high.

They eventually lost at Aldershot and were close to losing at home to Poole a week later before things took on a familiar role at Rayleigh where Exeter lost heavily by 61-23. The first ever official Test match was staged at Exeter between England and Sweden which drew a very sizeable crowd. Included in what was effectively a Div 3 side were Exeter's Hardy, Gent and Bob Roger with Olle Nygren in the Swedish team who broke the track record in his opening race clocking 72.8 seconds. England won the match 61-46.

Away wins at Swindon and Cardiff kept the titles aspirations truly alive and when they beat Poole (who were the League leaders at that time) 55-29, confidence was high. But all remaining hopes were dashed when Exeter travelled to Poole and lost 30-54 that all but ensured the Pirates the league Title.

Johnny Sargeant was then badly injured at Rayleigh where he sustained severe hand injuries that all but halted what looked like a promising racing career. Exeter finished as runners up to Poole, having won all 18 home matches and amazingly ten out of the 18 away matches to end a very succesful season. Division 1 giants Wembley agreed to turn up at Exeter for a challenge match which ended a draw. In excess of 14,000 fans watched the spectacle, and never again was the County Ground to see such a huge crowd, not ebven the arrival of Ivan Mauger in 1974 could match that number.

Elsewhere in 1951

The 1951 season maybe hailed by some as the best season in speedway history. There were probably more top-class riders in action during the "Festival of Britain" year than any season before or since. There were 37 tracks in operation at the start of the season, three divisions made up the National League. There were test matches in all divisions, the World Championship was the highlight and, of course, there were the regional cups, individual titles and the very popular match race championships.

The season started with the Golden Vase Trophy in Division One which was won by Harrrngay. Division Two staged three separate shield events, Northern, Midland and South, the winners being Edinburgh, Cradley Heath and Oxford respectively. The Third Division raced for the Festival Trophy and Poole were the eventual winners. With these preliminaries out of the way the serious business of league racing got under way. Southampton pulled out before the start and Sheffield withdrew after just five matches. This left 35 clubs to contest the three divisions, nine teams in Division 1, sixteen in Division 2 and ten in Division 3.

Predictably the powerful Wembley Lions won the First Division title for the fifth time in six years, Norwich won Division Two and progressed a long way in the National Trophy which was the equivalent of today's Knock Out Cup. Poole were comfortable winners of Division Three, Wimbledon won the National Trophy which was sponsored by the Daily Mail and another prestigious event was the London Cup, also run on a knock-out formula. Wembley emerged as winners whilst Leicester won the newly formed Midland Cup and Edinburgh were Scottish Cup winners. Bearing in mind that there were four good division two clubs in Scotland in 1951, the sad loss of Ken LeBreton during the close season meant that a new Scottish Match Race Champion had to be fought for and Ken was also the Silver Helmet holder at the time of his death.

The match race events were a very popular feature of any speedway season in the post-war period. The Golden Helmet (Division One) was held by Aub Lawson who had taken it from Jack Parker the previous season (in August after 13 successful defences), Lawson beat Fred Williams in May but lost to Parker in June, Split Waterman defeated Parker in July and held on to the title for the rest of the season.

In Division Two, the Silver Helmet was vacant because of the LeBreton tragedy. Jack Young and Arthur Forrest contested the event with Young emerging as victor (2-0, 0-2, 2-1). He fought off the challenges of Derek Close and Bob Leverenz before losing to Tommy Miller in July. Miller held on to the title after beating Junior Bainbridge, his White City team mate, 2-0,2-1.

The Bronze Helmet (Division Three) was contested by Trevor Redmond and Ken Middleditch in May but the Poole rider had to retire hurt after the first leg which he lost 2-0. Redmond beat off four more challenges before the season ended (including Middleditch in September). Aub Lawson became the London Riders' Champion; he also won the Laurels. Len Williams became the first Midland Riders' Champion, Jack Young became Scottish Champion and Ronnie Moore took the Irish Open Championship at Shelbourne Park.

In the Workd Championship, Jack Biggs looked certain to win the Final after winning his first four races he needed only a comfortable third place to be crowned champion. However, it was not to be as he finished last in his final ride and in the run off with Jack Young and Split Waterman he also finished last. Jack Young was the eventual winner with Split Waterman runner up and Biggs in third place.

Pictured Right (from L to R) are Jack Biggs, Jack Young and Split Waterman following the run off to decide the World Championship.

Jack young had an incredible record in 1951. In 39 league and cup matches he dropped only nine points, which included an engine failure in one race. He was unbeaten in his 10 North Shield matches, scored no less than 205 points in test matches in one season, his total of 794 points from 61 official fixtures is a truly remarkable record and never likely to be equalled.

One wonders what might have been in 1951 if Ken LeBreton had lived to contest another season. Also one must remember the unfashionable teams like the Liverpool Chads. Even though they had a young rider named Peter Craven in their team they finished in 13th place in Division Two and dropped out of the league after just one more season. The major problem in those days was the entertainment tax. This was levied at 45 per cent and despite objections from the speedway authorities the House of Commons rejected an amendment by 297 to 279 on June 13 and the tax remained to cripple a number of other speedway venues during the next few seasons.